Thursday, October 22, 2009

So Crafty and Then Some

For years now I've been wanting to make Christmas stockings for the kids. I waited until I knew we were done having babies. I wanted to make them a coordinating set and I didn't want baby #4 or 5 to get the Odd-Man Out stocking because I lost the pattern or I couldn't get the same yarn. This is the year for stockings, though. I cast on October 1 in order to give myself plenty of time, but it got done a lot faster than I had anticipated.

Lo! A Stocking!

That's Bartlettyarn in the 2-ply. Colors are Cranberry and something else. The neutral color is Light Sheep Grey. The red is much deeper in person. More like a, uh, cranberry. I suppose I could take a better picture, but it's pretty cold outside. The pattern is Holly from Annie's Woolens. The website says it is a traditional Scandinavian pattern. We do like to get the Swede on around the holidays. Pickled herring. . . yummm.

I've also been pretty busy with the jelly making. Rachel and I got together over the weekend and made a bunch of grape jelly from some of my dad's grapes. The grapes are pretty hit-or-miss, but this was a very good year for the juice.

Last night I did a little experiment. Rosehip Jelly. From my parents' rose hips. I think I'll plant some roses next spring that will give good rose hips. There seems to be some wild controversy on the internet as to the best time to pick the rose hips. I think my dad picked them after a light frost. I got just under three pints from two quarts of rose hips. I can't wait to try it. However, I have a quart of grape jelly in the fridge that didn't get canned, so I think we should eat that before opening anything new. Does anyone have a good recipe that calls for a cup or two of grape jelly?

3 comments:

Oh, that stocking is so similar to the ones my mom made for the family when I was little! She made them all different, and when I was little I was peeved because all three other family members had stripes (in different different bright color combinations) but I had assorted rows (similar to the one you made, in navy and white). But now I feel sorry for those poor suckers because mine is CLEARLY the best.

Hi Sarah, the jelly looks delicious. Just getting back to you about the tomato seeds. Here is what I could find out. Thought I better comment here in case you didn't check back but I left the info in the comment section of my tomato post too.

Apparently the seeds were originally either Big Mama or Big Italian paste tomatoes. But...several generations on my tomatoes don't look like those varieties. If you look on this link -http://www.tomatogrowers.com/processing.htmI think mine are closer to either a San Marzano Redorta, a Super Italian Paste, a Howard German or Grandma Mary's Paste. They definitely have that long (about 6 inches) shape with a point at the end. Hope that helps.